I've been covering the business of news, information and entertainment in one form or another for more than 10 years. In February 2014, I moved to San Francisco to cover the tech beat. My primary focus is social media and digital media, but I'm interested in other aspects, including but not limited to the sharing economy, lifehacking, fitness & sports tech and the evolving culture of the Bay Area. In past incarnations I've worked at AOL, Conde Nast Portfolio, Radar and WWD. Circle me on Google+, follow me on Twitter or send me tips or ideas at jbercovici@forbes.com.

It was the surprise of the political season, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. While it took until now for him to issue a full endorsement, Rove has for months been using the Journal’s op-ed page to signal his approval for the president. Just last week, in fact, he praised Obama’s work ethic, writing, “He is working a lot harder than he thought he would.”

In February, he lauded the president’s motives in establishing a new agency, saying, “Mr. Obama set up a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010 to make sure people are treated fairly.”

And last September, Rove explicitly accused his own political allies of doing voters a disservice by opposing Obama, writing, “[H]is Republican opposition puts party ahead of country.”

If there’s a reason those comments didn’t cause more of a ripple when he made them, perhaps it’s because he didn’t actually say any of these things.

That is, he did write the words I attribute to him, but in a completely different context that changes the meaning to the point where, by removing that context, I’ve inverted his sentiments by 180 degrees.

Here’s what Rove wrote, referring to a new film put out by the Obama campaign:

As for the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation. Even President Bill Clinton says in the film “that’s the call I would have made.”

And here, as Sargeant notes, is what Clinton is actually quoted saying in the film (emphasis mine).

“He took the harder and the more honorable path. When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, ‘I hope that’s the call I would have made.’”

See what he did there? See how, by taking out “I hope,” he turned it from a big-up to a put-down? Clever, right?

It’s so clever, in fact, that I suspect the Journal may want to issue a correction — just, you know, to let readers in on the joke. I emailed the paper’s editorial page editor, Paul Gigot, and its editorial features editor, Robert Pollock, to see if they have anything like that in mind. I’ll let you know if I hear back from them. [Update: A Journal spokeswoman says the paper declines comment. Update 2: An "editor's note" has been added to the column. It reads: "An earlier version of this column included an incomplete quote from Bill Clinton in the last paragraph." The quote has been restored as well.]

Meantime, here are the fuller and thus more boring versions of the Karl Rove quotes above.

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dectra dectra, shocking isnt it. Who would have thought Karl Rove is a liar. Honestly Fox viewers will call this reporter a liar. They have the blinders on so tight it is cutting cirulation off to the brain.

‘Misinformation is too common, but folks in America let it slide. Over time, the lies grow and the people lose track. How do you think we go to where we are now? When the people hold their leaders accountable, things change. Until then, let the misinformation game continue.

You likely read the piece after the writer changed the title of the article from “Shocker! Karl Rove Endorses Obama in WSJ Op-Ed. Really!*” to “Shocker! Karl Rove Endorses Obama in WSJ Op-Ed. (Not) Really!”.

Also, your sentiments appear to reflect animosity against previous comments’ opposition to your own views. I noted this from your remark that readers focused on Forbes’s immaturity “and not Rove’s/Fox’s call to arms based on blatant deceit.” In other words, you’re equally responsible for the “subjectivity of our objectivity” becoming “pervasive”–which makes no sense in itself.

No suprise there. Karl Rove has been lying and deceiving people for years, he and his followers have made a point to deceive America ever since G.W. Bush first took office. At the expense of truth this man has created a monster media machine that has lied and misled our country forcing average citizens who don’t pay close enough attention to believe his deception, he has done more harm to this country than any other American in history.It is Karl Rove who made it acceptable to lie to the mass population and distort the truth so bad as to make people believe a man like John Kerry a decorated veteran look like a lying coward, outed a CIA operative in retaliation for her husband speaking the truth, helped build a basis of lies about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, then seemlessly change the purpose of that war to liberating the Iraqi people. Gauranteed that the oil pumped out of Iraq would be used to pay for the rebuilding of Iraq, which never happend, not one red penny. Where did all of the oil we took go and who got the money for it? Now he has a super pack, brace yourselves folk I am certain he will try and make President Obama look like some kind of monster over the next 10 months. Bravo to this reporter for calling him out on his B.S.

What would you expect from a Lee Atwater protege? Rove is the mastermind behind the vile GOP campaign lies and tricks like “The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.” He has led the republicans through the sewers using Faux News and the Limbaughs of the right-wing media as his mouthpieces. Unfortunately for him, they have managed to alienate every group from women to African-Americans except old white men whom for the most part they have fooled into voting against their own interests. Maybe with the Ryan budget that ends Medicare, they can even alienate that group. Then all they will have left is old RICH white men.